Today’s Podcast
Today’s Scriptures
Today’s Bible reading plans include:
Ready – Hebrews 9:11-28
Set – Isaiah 11; Hebrews 9
Go! – Isaiah 11-14; Hebrews 9
Hebrews 9:11-28
11 When the Anointed One arrived as High Priest of the good things that are to come, He entered through a greater and more perfect sanctuary that was not part of the earthly creation or made by human hands. 12 He entered once for all time into the most holy place—entering, not with the blood of goats or calves or some other prescribed animal, but offering His own blood and thus obtaining redemption for us for all time. 13 Think about it: if the blood of bulls or of goats, or the sprinkling of ashes from a heifer, restores the defiled to bodily cleanliness and wholeness; 14 then how much more powerful is the blood of the Anointed One, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself as a spotless sacrifice to God, purifying your conscience from the dead things of the world to the service of the living God?
15 This is why Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant: through His death, He delivered us from the sins that we had built up under the first covenant, and His death has made it possible for all who are called to receive God’s promised inheritance. 16 For whenever there is a testament—a will—the death of the one who made it must be confirmed 17 because a will takes effect only at the death of its maker; it has no validity as long as the maker is still alive. 18 Even the first testament—the first covenant—required blood to be put into action. 19 When Moses had given all the laws of God to the people, he took the blood of calves and of goats, water, hyssop, and scarlet wool; and he sprinkled the scroll and all the people, 20 telling them, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded for us.” 21 In the same way, he also sprinkled blood upon the sanctuary and upon the vessels used in worship. 22 Under the law, it’s almost the case that everything is purified in connection with blood; without the shedding of blood, sin cannot be forgiven.
23 Since what was given in the old covenant was the earthly sketch of the heavenly reality, this was sufficient to cleanse the earthly sanctuary; but in heaven, a more perfect sacrifice was needed. 24 The Anointed One did not enter into handcrafted sacred spaces—imperfect copies of heavenly originals—but into heaven itself, where He stands in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 There He does not offer Himself over and over as a sacrifice (as the high priest on earth does when he enters the most holy place each year with blood other than his own) 26 because that would require His repeated suffering since the beginning of the world. No, He has appeared once now, at the end of the age, to put away sin forever by offering Himself as a sacrifice.
27 Just as mortals are appointed to die once and then to experience a judgment, 28 so the Anointed One, our Liberating King, was offered once in death to bear the sins of many and will appear a second time, not to deal again with sin, but to rescue those who eagerly await His return.
Today’s Devotional
From today’s background scripture God might say:
I gave Moses a poor copy of the sacred spaces of My sanctuary. The tabernacle and all its implements held a special place in the lives of the Israelites as they wandered in the desert and in the young nation as it established itself in the promised land. The Temple Solomon built with all its grandeur still stood as a poor example of My throne room in heaven. But the plans and the space set aside for My worship did help people understand My holiness. The separate place for devotion to Me was cleaner than the rest of the city. Its water purer, the implements stronger and better made. The altar glittered from the bronze cleaned every morning and the gold within the enclosure reflected the brilliant rays of the sun wherever you gazed.
Even with all the bronze, silver, and gold in the tabernacle and Temple, the spaces were but poor examples of the glory of heaven. Nothing on earth compares to the beauty that surrounds Me continuously. A very few have glimpsed corners of heaven and are always unable to describe it. The colors, the sounds, the smells, the feelings, the beauty is absolutely beyond anything you can imagine.
That’s what I gave up to become your sacrifice. Nothing could atone for you like My blood. So I gave it freely so you could live. The imitation of the glories of heaven wouldn’t work. The imitation of pure and perfect sacrifices would work. The imitation of atonement wouldn’t work. So I gave myself. I came as the perfect sacrifice for your sins. I came as your high priest and gave myself. That’s the love I have for you. Only one Man could serve as the perfect high priest, Me, God wrapped in human flesh. Only one Man could be your perfect sacrifice, Me, God wrapped in human flesh. Only one God loves enough to become the One Man who would do it all for you. Me.
Think about the role I play in your salvation. What I gave up for you so you can be freed from the chains of sin. Then ask yourself if you have given yourself to Me as fully. If not, today can be the day you give yourself wholly to Me. I’ll take you just like you are.
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